ArcaMax

You can also select a six-speed automatic - VW's "direct shift" (DSG) gearbox. It is a very efficient (and responsive) automatic.

Still, the manual TDI Golf does the best at the pump - carrying an EPA rating of 31 MPG in city driving and 45 MPG on the highway. But it's only better by a hair. The DSG-equipped TDI Golf earns the same 31 MPG in the city rating - and 43 on the highway.

I suspect the highway advantage of the manual is the deep overdrive gearing of sixth gear, as mentioned earlier above. At road speeds under 45 MPH, the engine will sometimes lug if you go from fifth to sixth. That sixth gear is meant to keep the revs low even when the Golf's road speed is high. At 85 MPH, the engine is turning just over 2,500 RPM. And that's why it's capable of 45 MPG. More than 45 MPG, actually.

Ask anyone who owns a VW diesel and they'll "amen" this statement. I've managed close to 50 myself (by keeping it under 80). It is definitely doable. And - to put a finer point on it - it's more doable to keep it in the mid-high 40s on the highway at 70-or-so-MPH in a diesel-powered car such as the Golf than it is to pull off that same trick in a hybrid car like the Prius (which also costs thousands more, by the way). Hybrids are extremely fuel-efficient ... when driven slowly. Especially when not driven at all - as when sitting idle in traffic - because during those moments of idleness, the onboard gas engine will usually not be running (and burning gas) at all.

But when driven fast, continuously - sustained highway speeds around 70 or so - hybrids are at a disadvantage. The electric battery depletes quickly, forcing the gas-engine side of the powertrain to kick in (and stay on). Since it's a gas engine, it's inherently less efficient than a diesel - and because most hybrids have smaller-than-usual gas engines - it's also working really hard to maintain the vehicle's speed. Which typically means it's using more gas than you'd expect.

The current Prius C, for instance, only rates 46 MPG on the highway. This is much less than its city rating of 53 MPG - and in real-world highway driving a speeds in the 70-75 MPH range, my experience has been that hybrids like the Prius typically average mid-high 30s. A TDI Golf, meanwhile, will still give you mid-high 40s, even when driven at today's highway speeds.

The one fly in the soup is that VW has had to add urea-injection to all its 2015 diesel-powered cars, including the new Golf, in order to continue to be able to sell diesel-powered cars at all.

VW used to be the only car company whose diesel-powered cars did not need urea injection - and DEF - diesel exhaust fluid - to comply with the government's ever-stricter emissions requirements. They're now so strict that DEF is necessary. Which means you'll need to periodically top off the DEF tank, which has a fill nozzle adjacent to the normal diesel fuel fill nozzle. It's a hassle - and an additional expense. Neither are huge, but they are part of the equation now. And they do detract somewhat from the appeal a diesel-powered car would otherwise have.

ON THE ROAD

One important thing to know about the Golf TDI relative to many of its gas-engined competitors is that it's equally peppy with with either transmission, because of the mighty torque output of the diesel engine.

...continued